Sue Ann Gilroy stepped beyond the podium, spoke without notes and told local Republicans what they needed to hear Thursday night.

Indiana's secretary of state, who's outwardly showing interest in succeeding Dan Coats in the U.S. Sentate, opened her speech at 2517 with a few typical jabs at liberal Democrats, then settled into the thrust of her speech.

In what Kosciusko County Republican Party chairman Mike Miner afterward called a wake-up call, the highest-ranking elected Republican in Indiana laid the cards on the table, admitting Democrats were beating their party at their own game.

Gilroy, who stepped into office as part of the "Lugar Team" during the 1994 Republican revolution, spoke of disappointment in the election results of 1996, which included victories for Democrats in the governor's mansion and the White House.

"The truth is we're getting beat by our own message. We're getting hammered by the very nail we have fashioned so very well for so many years."

She blamed the inability to win in part, on "petty, inter-party squabbles, bloody, muck-raking primaries, geographical in-fighting and single-issue side-stepping and an image that somehow, we're a closed, exclusive group."

But wait. She wasn't done.

"We can blame the press, we can blame TV, we can blame the Democrats and we can even blame the soccer moms and the fickle Republicans, but the fact of the matter is, we have to look to ourselves for the answers."

She said Democrats had shifted their viewpoints to please the public, but doubted the opponents' sincerity.

"To me, they're like wolves in sheep's clothing. They wear their gray business suits and yet, they wear our conservative message like they would some trendy cologne," she said. "What is wrong with this picture?"

She urged party workers to do a better job getting the vote out and spoke of the need to broaden the party's appeal to include more women and minorities.

On issues, she called for a new education model that stresses choice, real tax reform similar to that proposed by former Gov. Otis Bowen and more budgetary accountability.

Gilroy made only passing mention of former Gov. Evan Bayh, who is expected to run on the Democrat ticket for the Senate seat.

The Montgomery County native said the opportunity to run for the Senate presented itself in a quick, unexpected fashion after Coats surprisingly announced he would not seek another term in the Senate.

She said she has been told she fits the profile needed for a Republican candidate to win, and continues to assess her chances.

Gilroy held a local fund-raiser, but said it is not specifically part of a Senate fund-raising effort. That would occur if and when she formally announces, she said. [[In-content Ad]]